big chomp, page-69

pp,

nice post,

re this part of your post:

"When I spoke to TP some time ago I queried him on the copper at TN.

As I recall his attitude was that when TN was sold it would be complete with everything. No trying to work out who owns what deposits. No comebacks ..."

this seems at odds with the co's ann as released through the asx, dated 19/08/10 'vale acquires option over avanco iron ore property', which listed on p1 'key provisions of the agreement'

provision 6 states:

"in the event economic mineralisation other than iron ore is discovered, both parties will renegotiate with vale retaining preferential rights to first refusal"

note it does not state they may renegotiate, it states they will renegotiate

if key provisions of the agreement have changed from those released to the asx in the above ann, an ann indicating this should be forthcoming

note pp, not questioning whether he said this to you, just that it appears at odds with a previous representation made by the co in a price sensitive ann released to the market

re the potential cash from vale, they have already stated that vale has delineated a resource that at least meets the minimum payment for vale to proceed to ownership of the property, ie us$10m minus the payments received for the yearly options, us$950k received thus far - so at a minimum vale would need to pay us$9.05m to avb (which would include the otherwise 3rd year us$1m option payment payable)

note in a previous conversation francis funston would not pony up the royalty rate agreed to

don't forget this is the second dealing (as it were) that avb have had with vale, the first resulted in vale taking a chomp out of serra verde (notice how the sv tenement changed from the 2007 prospectus [and indeed up to the mar 2010 qrtly act rep] size to its current size), courtesy of vale's underlying claim to the chomp, which vale asserted when avb acquired the rv and sv properties, and after avb unsuccessfully appealed against said chompage (according to telefunken conversacione with tp)

however, another possibility re news to come soon incls:

from the recent agm preso, dated 29/11/11, p19

"... aggresively pursuing advanced projects to underpin the production objective, some negotiations are advanced ..."

as to the production objective, p2

"... targeting discovery/acquisition of resources to achieve 30,000 to 50,000tpa copper production ..."

and from the recent ann, 'trial mining licence granted', also dated 29/11/11

"... the discovery and/or acquisition of resources to support a 30,000 - 50,000tpa copper production project (with a ten year life-of-mine) remains a priority for the company ..."

so they are pursuing advanced copper projects in the surrounding region

imo the recent agau boa acquisition could not be described as an advanced project, its still in early exploration

an advanced project could be a known copper deposit in the region

could it be the purchase of an advanced project that takes us from explorer to developer (or in conjunction with rv starter pits)

with all this talk of advanced, you would think that avanco is portugese for advance ...

is brazil still a net copper importer - from from the oct 2008 preso, p17:

"... brazil is a net copper importer, avanco's copper will attract a premium to spot ..."

cheers